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An elite Army Ranger and master Army aviator, Maj. Christian “Kit” Martin flew some 1,000 hours of combat missions in Iraq. Today, however, the 47-year-old attack helicopter pilot is fighting the toughest battle of his life at home. He shared details of that battle during an exclusive interview Sept. 2. Today, for the first time ever, I share the complete 49-minute version of the interview, complete with on-screen updates.

Click on video below to view Bob McCarty’s 49-minute interview of Army Major Christian “Kit” Martin, complete with on-screen updates.

First, however, some background: Major Martin faces a laundry list of charges that could land him in prison for a maximum of 10 years if convicted. The charges stem from allegations made against him by his ex-wife, a woman who pleaded guilty in Christian County (Ky.) Court Oct. 14 to a felony charge of bigamy — that is, she admitted to having married Major Martin without telling him she was still married to another man — only weeks before a military court at Fort Campbell, Ky., was set to decide the major’s guilt or innocence.

The latest: Major Martin became a “person of interest” to law enforcement officials in the Fort Campbell area after several bodies were discovered Nov. 19 at two different locations not far from his Pembroke, Ky., home. One of the bodies was that of Calvin Lee Phillips, 59, a man who lived across the street from the major and was set to testify during the aforementioned military trial. Following an emergency hearing Nov. 24, a military judge ordered the trial, set to begin Dec. 1, delayed indefinitely.

UPDATE 12/7/2015 at 8:14 a.m. Central: A military judge continued the military trial date for Army Maj. Christian “Kit” Martin to sometime in March 2016, though no specific date has been set.

UPDATE 12/10/2015 at 11:09 a.m. Central: I’ve learned that Major Martin’s military trial date is set for March 14-18, 2016.

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As an investigative journalist and author whose nonfiction book, The Clapper Memo, was described by David P. Schippers as “perhaps the most thorough investigative reporting I have encountered in years,” I like to think I’m pretty good at sniffing out “rats.” Of course, it helped to receive confirmation fromSchippers, the man who served as the U.S. House of Representatives’ chief investigative counsel during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. After detecting the odor of a Pentagon-sized “rat” at Fort Campbell, Ky., I decided to let Gen. Mark A. Milley know about it.

Are you willing, in your role as Chief of Staff of the United States Army, to allow Army prosecutors at Fort Campbell, Ky., to continue the wrongful and reckless prosecution of Maj. Christian “Kit” Martin on sexual assault allegations even after his female accuser pleaded guilty to a felony crime?

Yesterday, this woman — whose own sister recently described her as “untruthful since childhood” and whose own father told investigators working for Major Martin she had a long history of telling lies — entered a guilty plea before Christian County (Ky.) Judge Andrew Self on a single felony charge of bigamy (i.e., marrying one person while you are still legally married to another) and is now awaiting her sentencing Feb. 17, 2016.

The man she deceived for most of a decade is Major Martin, a same Regular Army officer, Ranger, attack helicopter pilot and Iraq combat veteran your predecessor, Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, once described as a “top of the line” officer of “unquestionable integrity.”

This woman, now a convicted felon, is behind the slew of false allegations against Major Martin, the most outrageous of which is that he sexually assaulted her and her three children. Hardly coincidentally, her allegations began to surface only after Major Martin told her he wanted a divorce.

This woman’s allegations against this outstanding officer are nearly identical to those she made years earlier against her first — and, legally speaking, only — husband. While recently speaking to investigators working for Major Martin, that man said the woman had made the same kind of vile allegations against him but had not pursued them. Instead, she had opted to abduct the two children they had had together — her second- and third-born children — and never return.

This woman might have made similar allegations against the father of her first child, whom she never married, but did not. Instead, she came up with something more creative, telling anyone who would listen that he had been decapitated in a logging accident in Oregon 19 years earlier. She even told her first child that story when she determined him old enough to comprehend.

Something else you should know and might want to investigate, General Milley, is that agents from Army Criminal Investigation Command confirmed not only that they had been unable to locate the reportedly-decapitated man, but that he was dead. It was only through the efforts of Major Martin’s private investigators — and not through the help of any medical examiner, undertaker or cemetery administrator — that the man this woman had hoped to keep in her past was located.

Also worth noting is that the two biological fathers of the three children born to Major Martin’s accuser — even the reportedly-decapitated man — are not only trying to gain back custody of their children, but both are planning to appear and testify during Major Martin’s upcoming military trial, set to begin Dec. 1 at Fort Campbell. Imagine the media circus that will generate!

General Milley, I trust you will look at the facts of this case seriously. I trust you will take a serious look at the outcomes of the multiple military and civilian investigations that found no substance to any of the allegations against Major Martin. And I trust you will cast aside political correctness and pressure from powerful lawmakers to obtain a conviction when all evidence points toward acquittal.

Likewise, I trust you will give serious thought to whether Maj. Gen. Mark R. Stammer is, after making the wrong decision in Major Martin’s case while serving as acting commander at Fort Campbell, suited to wearing two stars as commander of such an important organization as Africa Command‘sCombined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa.

Finally, I trust you will take swift and immediate action to stop this reckless and wrongful prosecution of Major Martin!

For the most part, I worked offline this week. I will, however, offer an update about the case of Maj. Christian “Kit” Martin, an Army Ranger and attack helicopter pilot who finds himself facing false allegations that could land him in prison for 58 years* if he’s convicted at his military trial set to begin Dec. 1 at Fort Campbell, Ky. So stay tuned!

Bob McCarty

Thanks in advance for reading and sharing my articles. You can show your support and help to keep these articles coming by buying my books and encouraging your friends and loved ones to do the same. To learn how to order signed copies, click here.

*UPDATE: After publishing this article, I learned Army prosecutors agreed to limit any possible punishment in this case to 10 years. A sign they have a weak case?”

The past seven days have kept me busy with research and writing about another sad case involving the Army’s relentless push to convict a military man based on a variety of allegations, including sexual assault, that multiple civilian and military investigations have already dismissed as unsubstantiated. The result of that work appears below in the form of my weekly update for Sept. 27 through Oct. 3, 2015.

The images in the graphic above represent but a few of the images accompanying articles I published during the past week.

Because I was a day late in publishing my previous weekly update and because they were part of a three-part series published Sept. 26-27, I ended up sharing brief details about two pieces — here and here — published Sept. 27 in that recap and won’t include them this week.

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, I put together a recap of my coverage of Major Martin’s case during the previous month. It appeared under the self-explanatory headline, “Thirty Days of Hell in the Life of an Accused Army Officer,” and stands as a must-read for anyone wanting a synopsis of what this man has endured, especially in recent weeks.

On Friday, Oct. 2, I decided to share a paragraph I’d come across a few days earlier while reading Brad Taylor’s thriller, The Insider Threat. Why? Because it made me think about Major Martin’s case and the life-and-death subject matter I’d written about so many times in recent weeks. It also gave me the opportunity to offer my readers a challenge. It appears under the headline, Don’t Worry, You Won’t Have to Jump On A Grenade.

On a personal note, I accomplished a major health and fitness goal during the month of September, tackling 127,700 stair steps — an average of more than 4,200 per day — and beating my goal of 110,000 stair steps. Combined with my previous month’s effort, I logged more than 221,000 stair steps in 61 days — an average of more than 3,600 stair steps per day — at the suburban St. Louis lake where I exercise daily. Plus, I lost 11 lbs. along the way!

Thanks in advance for reading and sharing the articles above and those to follow. You can show your support and help keep these articles coming by buying my books and encouraging your friends and loved ones to do the same. To learn how to order signed copies, click here.

*UPDATE: After publishing this article, I learned Army prosecutors agreed to limit any possible punishment in this case to 10 years. A sign they have a weak case?”

Over the weekend, I shared three new articles about some of the testimony that took place before Col. Andrew Glass at Fort Campbell, Ky., early last week. In short, the military judge heard arguments from attorneys on both sides about whether unlawful command influence and prosecutorial misconduct had surfaced in the prosecution of Army Maj. Christian “Kit” Martin. Today, I share details about witnesses who were prevented from appearing and ask “Why?”

This graphic tells Maj. Christian “Kit” Martin’s story in a nutshell. If justice doesn’t prevail, he faces the possibility of spending 58 years in prison for something he did not do.

First, some background: Major Martin, 47, is an Army Ranger and attack helicopter pilot with a distinguished 29-year military career — including three combat tours in Iraq — under his belt. Soon after telling his “wife” he wanted a divorce, he found himself the target of serious allegations and multiple criminal investigations followed during the next three years. Today, he faces the possibility of 58 years in prison if convicted on the most recent charges stemming from his ex-wife’s allegations of sexual assault and abuse. Because there is much more to it than I can share in one paragraph, I recommend you read the overview article about the case published Sept. 4 before you read any further.

While important testimony was spotlighted in the articles above, several other witnesses were prevented from testifying during the Article 39A hearing — essentially a pre-trial hearing during which the parties hashed out details in advance of having panel members (i.e., jurors) present. In fact, prosecutors objected to 19 out of 21 witnesses requested by the defense, and only a handful of those witnesses ended up being allowed to testify.

SENIOR OFFICERS DENIED AS WITNESSES

Among those prevented from testifying were Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the recently retired Army chief of staff shown in the center of the graphic above. If you’re thinking he might have been called as a means for the defense to bring in “star power,” think again. Back when Odierno was a mere lieutenant colonel at Fort Lewis, Wash., Martin was a young lieutenant AND his executive officer. In fact, in an officer evaluation, then-LTC Odierno described then-1LT Martin as a “top of the line” officer of “unquestionable integrity.”

Also deemed “off limits” by the court was Maj. Gen. Mark R. Stammer, the man shown at right in the graphic above. A brigadier general (a.k.a., “one-star general”) at the time he made the decision to prosecute Major Martin, he soon earned a second star and a slot as commander of Africa Command’s Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. It would have been interesting to hear his take on why he decided to pursue a conviction of Major Martin after investigations by multiple civilian and military agencies had found no substance in any of the accusations against the 29-year Regular Army officer.

In addition, it would have been interesting to hear General Stammer respond to the testimony of Major Martin’s letter-writing sister, Juliet Andes, whose name also appeared on the list of witnesses initially denied by the prosecution. Email evidence shows General Stammer alerted prosecution attorneys about her email within hours of receiving the electronic letter she had written to him. According to Andes, those prosecutors badgered her for days afterward.

I suspect courtroom observers would have salivated over the testimony of LTC Ryan P. O’Connor, a man who served as Major Martin’s brigade commander at the time allegations surfaced. The lieutenant colonel was denied as a witness, defense sources tell me, because he’d conducted his own investigation into the allegations and was known to have been appalled at the poor excuse for military justice he’d seen taking place before his eyes. Since being transferred from Fort Campbell to Fort Hood, Texas, he has steadfastly refused to reply to Major Martin’s investigators’ repeated attempts to contact him. Can’t blame him. He probably wants to safeguard his own career, too.

CIVILIAN PROSECUTOR DENIED AS WITNESS

Initially denied as a defense witness, Katherine (Garber) Foster, the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Attorney for Christian County (a.k.a., “the local civilian prosecutor”), was allowed to testify after she showed up in the courtroom on her own accord. Notably, she told the court Army prosecutors tried to pressure her to drop a bigamy charge against Major Martin’s Accuser. Makes one wonder if military prosecutors feared such prosecution might hurt the credibility of their star witness who, by the way, is set to go on trial Oct. 22 in Hopkinsville, Ky.

MILITARY INVESTIGATORS DENIED AS WITNESSES

Also on the list of witnesses who could have shed light on the weakness of the prosecution’s case are several individuals who investigated the allegations against Major Martin while working for civilian and military agencies.

For instance, it would have been interesting to hear Army Counter-Intelligence investigators testify about their investigation into allegations that Major Martin had been some kind of international spy. They could have told the court several things, including the following:

1) They could have told the court about how cooperative Major Martin had been during their six-month investigation which included surveillance and wiretapping as well as an extensive search of his off-post home;

2) They could have told the court about how the laptop allegedly stolen by Major Martin was inoperable and had been out of the Army inventory for seven years before his accuser and her new male friend, a former Army Supply officer, turned it over to the FBI; and

3) They could have told the court about how Major Martin had passed a three-hour polygraph exam they had administered.

Likewise, it would have been interesting to hear Army Criminal Investigation Command agents testify about how they had confirmed that the man who had fathered the first child of Major Martin’s accuser had, as she had long claimed, been decapitated in a logging accident in Oregon almost 20 years ago. Immediately after CID agents testified, it would have been interesting to see the shocked look on their faces when the reportedly-decapitated manwalked into the court-room to testify as told investigators working on Major Martin’s behalf he is willing to do.

Finally, it would have been interesting to hear Military Police investigators explain why, during their investigation of allegations against Major Martin, they refused to accept documents and evidence he tried to deliver to them in an effort to further prove his innocence.

Thanks in advance for reading and sharing the article above and those to follow, and please show your support by buying my books and encouraging your friends and loved ones to do the same. To learn how to order signed copies, click here.